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WoRMS taxon details

Latimeriidae 
AphiaID: 178651

Classification: Biota > Animalia (Kingdom) > Chordata (Phylum) > Vertebrata (Subphylum) > Gnathostomata (Superclass) > Pisces (Superclass) > Sarcopterygii (Class) > Coelacanthiformes (Order)
Status accepted
Record
status		 Added by Database Management Team
Rank Family
Parent Coelacanthiformes
Synonymised
taxa		  Coelacanthidae (synonym)
Sources  basis of record: Eschmeyer, W.: Catalog of fishes; California Academy of Sciences, department Ichtyology., available online at http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/Ichthyology/catalog/fishcatmain.asp [details]

Vernacular
Names		 
Language   Name 
English gombessa  [details]
All child
taxa
[hide all]		 Genus Latimeria Smith, 1939
  » Species Latimeria chalumnae Smith, 1939
» Species Latimeria menadoensis Pouyaud, Wirjoatmodjo, Rachmatika, Tjakrawidjaja, Hadiaty & Hadie, 1999

Genus Latemaria accepted as Latimeria Smith, 1939
  » Species Latemaria chalumnae Smith, 1939 accepted as Latimeria chalumnae Smith, 1939
Genus Malania accepted as Latimeria Smith, 1939
  » Species Malania anjouanae Smith, 1953 accepted as Latimeria chalumnae Smith, 1939
Link To ITIS
Note  Distribution: Distribution: South Africa ? and Comoros archipelago. Ovoviviparous livebearers which produce 19-59 eggs and about 5 young. Eggs can attain a diameter of 9 cm. In the oviduct the young can reach about 33 cm total length. Gestation period 13 month. Adults with maximum length of 1.8 m. Coelacanths live on steep steep rocky shores, sheltering in caves during the day (often in groups) and foraging singly over open substrates at night. Preferred depth 180-220 m, temperature 16-23 C°. They are long-lived, slow-growing, epibenthic drift-predators of fish and squid. Their main enemies are likely to be large sharks. An inventory of all known specimens lists 171 specimens that have been caught off the Comoros since 1952 (Bruton & Coutouvidis, 1991). [details]
LSID urn:lsid:marinespecies.org:taxname:178651
Taxonomic
Edit history		 
Date   action   by
2005-08-04 10:39:12Z  created  Claus, Simon
  
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  Citation: WoRMS (2013). Latimeriidae. In: Froese, R. and D. Pauly. Editors. (2013) FishBase. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=178651 on 2013-05-24
  Creative Commons License The webpage text is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License